GIRL, UNPLUGGED
YA Novel Chapter 26 | 9 Minute Read
This is Chapter 26 of a YA novel. To see where the story began, check out the GIRL, UNPLUGGED table of contents post, or head to the GIRL, UNPLUGGED section of the Story Hoarder Substack page to see all the chapters.
This chapter is a 9 minute read.
CHAPTER 26: Chief Grady
When I emerged from the pop up triage, everything about Times Square had changed. While we were expecting a decrease in police presence as we got closer and closer to sun down, the opposite happened. I guessed the gunshots changed the priorities of the day. Add to that an officer being treated for gunshot wounds and we had ourselves a huge lockdown in effect. The officers no longer positioned themselves behind the barricades, but in front of them. One of the mounted policemen was doing large laps around the perimeter of Times Square monitoring the surrounding areas leading up to it.
The tkts booth, where tourists usually lined up all day to get discounted tickets to Broadway shows, was surrounded by police. It was a strange sight. Instead of keeping their backs to the booth as if they were protecting it, they were all looking in. When I saw Russ and Colin making their way over to the booth, I went in the same direction. The police parted for them and then, surprisingly, they did the same for me. Inside, handcuffed to a pole inside and badly beaten, was the man from the deli, the younger one. He was in the middle of cursing out one of the officers who was taunting him when I came into his view.
“Oh there’s my little sweet thing,” he said licking his lips, “I should have taken you before the ice.” It looked like he tried to wink with his bruised eye when the officer inside with him kicked him in the side saying, “No one will question it if you turn up dead just like your buddy.” The man coughed and laughed as I felt my body being pulled away from the booth.
“What are you doing over here?” Russ hissed.
“I saw you and Colin so I —” he cut me off when he saw my bloody shirt.
“Are you even supposed to be up right now?” he said, pulling it up revealing my clean bandages.
I pulled my shirt down saying, “I’m fine, Russ. They told me to get out of there. Janice lost her shit when she saw me.” I looked over toward the store wondering how they calmed her down, if they calmed her down at all. “I mean, I know I messed up in letting those guys in, but I thought she sent them, you know? I didn’t realize…” I looked up at him seeing his fury melt into concern. “I made a mistake. We sent for help. We got her out of there. The guys were caught. Officer Avery’s the one who should be mad at me, Janice looks like she got away—”
Russ stopped me again, this time by putting his hands gently on my shoulders, “Gunshots aren’t the only way people get hurt Natalie,” he said softly.
“No. No, there wasn’t time,” I said. “No no no she looked okay, Russ. She just looked…” What? I asked myself, What did she look like? Panicked? Frazzled? Unhinged? They had found a way to hurt her, but how? I remembered how that guy had looked at me, what it felt like he was thinking. I remember the powerful darkness of the implied thought. What kind of terrible blow could be dealt with turning that look into an action? I stood there silently staring passed Russ, through Times Square, through time, into the past.
I waved at him I thought. I invited both monsters into our lives. I opened the door for both of them to come in. I knew something was wrong. I sensed something was off with them and what did I do? I hid behind a counter. I let Russ and Colin walk right back to them without warning. I left Janice with them.
“It is all my fault,” I finally whispered.
Russ thrust his arms around me as I fell to pieces, but I barely felt him behind my own shaking.
“It’s all my fault,” I sobbed.
Colin came over with Chief Grady and a couple of other officers.
Grady spoke first, laying his large hand in between my shoulders, “I apologize for that, young lady. We are looking to get that sorry excuse for a lifeform moved out of here so none of us have to be in his presence, particularly you.”
I pulled away from Russ and looked at the chief. “I’m so sorry, Chief. I really am. I hope you believe me. I didn’t mean it at all. I was confused. I thought they were there to help. I’m so, so, so sorry.” I couldn’t stop myself from the rambling sorrow.
He looked at me cockeyed and said, “Sorry for what?”
“I did it,” I said. “It was all my fault. I’m sorry about Officer Avery and Janice.”
“Avery will be fine, Honey, she was just grazed,” he said, floating his hand right by my right shoulder and smiled. “A nice clean bandage and some doctor ordered pain killers will do her just fine.” A couple of the other officers laughed, pleasing Grady. Then he took on a much more serious stance before continuing, “As for Janice, that ain’t your fault. It never was and it never will be.”
“Well she thinks it is, and she’s right,” I told him.
“Listen, you were the first person she asked about when we got her out of there. She wouldn’t shut up until she saw you. You were out cold, so she freaked and asked whether or not those cretins had hurt you. She felt just as guilty about leaving you behind as you do right now.”
I doubted that.
I tried to explain to everyone that the men didn’t force themselves into the store, but it didn’t work. Everyone wanted to treat me like some kind of innocent victim instead of the catalyst to all of the afternoon horror. Brenda and Rainbow cornered me asking if I was okay and if I needed to talk. Daria and Princess both told me they were sorry. In the meantime, all of the boys were uncharacteristically silent around me. Dustin held Stella a bit closer, Terrell steered clear of me and Colin worked his way around the group retelling the tale in hushed tones, as if my hearing it would be some great offense. Murph kept looking at me, but never approached, and Russ had apparently gone missing, back to whatever he was working on before, I guessed. However, beyond the awkward group and my feelings of regret, what started to overshadow it all was the uneasy feeling that the sun was moving across the sky faster than what felt like normal. I looked up to the sky and, when it peeked out from the clouds, the sun was right in the spot Chief Grady had jokingly pointed out to us when we agreed to stay to help out.
“Is Officer Avery awake?” I asked Stella, who seemed to be the only person in my small tribe that was still treating me like a normal human being.
“She’s being taken to the hospital on the next carriage, I heard,” she said, pointing out another two horse-drawn carriages pulling into Times Square. One was pulled as close to the Express store as it could get — which was pretty close since one group spent the afternoon rolling cars out of the center of the street. The other pulled across the Square to one of the precinct tents. I watched as they carefully pulled Officer Avery into the back of the carriage, followed by Janice carefully climbing in behind her. I guess she had to go to the hospital too. Two police officers got in with them and the carriage pulled away.
As soon as it started moving Officer Avery woke up and screamed. I presumed the bumping of the carriage was painful for her, but otherwise I couldn’t say for sure. On the other end of the Square police piled into the back of the carriage, along with the prisoner. It took a long time for them to organize the entire situation and take off in the other direction. The carriage moved in the direction of the northwest end of the city, but it passed us on its way out.
Murphy was standing next to me, but as the carriage approached he stepped in front of me, blocking my view of the prisoner’s exodus. And, while I knew this was an attempt to save me any more grief, he couldn’t save Russ who showed up right as the carriages came by. The man heckled Russ as the carriage pulled slowly by, “Hey little boy, I think your little girlfriend wanted me.”
Murph’s entire posture tensed. I could see it in his shoulders, his fists and arms. Russ lunged for the carriage that appeared to pick up pace just in time. I reached out for him. He was pulsing, like I could feel the blood pumping through his arms. I whispered, “I’m sorry.” Which received the most terrifying response I could think of.
Russ, turned on me screaming, “You have to stop apologizing for him!”
He scared me, although I knew he was justified in his fury. I just wished he would say what he was really thinking. Something like, “I’m sorry doesn’t do shit to make up for the danger you put us all in!” or maybe, “Why don’t you save your sorries for Janice?” Chief Grady pulled Russ away from me and took him for a walk. I was surprised who came to my side. It was Rainbow and… Murph.
“He doesn’t mean it,” Murph said. “He’s just completely freaked out and feeling helpless.”
“He’s been crazy ever since the deli,” I said as I watched him walk away. “I don’t think he’s normally like that.” I felt the need to defend him in this situation, especially with Murph.
“He isn’t, you’re right,” Rainbow agreed, “but that doesn’t mean it’s okay for him to treat you that way now.” She looked in his direction. “I mean… especially now.”
“It’s a guy thing,” Murph said to both of us, as if that explained everything.
I just looked at him. I knew he was a guy. I knew guys acted weird in certain situations, but I didn’t like all of the yelling. I agreed with Rainbow. I didn’t think saying “it’s a guy thing” was enough of a cover for the whole irrational behavior thing. And, yet, I felt I deserved it anyway.
“It’s more than that. It’s that I put him and Colin in danger and Janice got attacked because of me. Russ knows it as much as I do. He’s got every reason to be mad at me. I just don’t understand why he’s still acting protective of me. I wish he would just say what he’s really thinking. He’s got every right to just leave me out in the cold.”
“That’s just stupid,” Murph said.
Rainbow shot Murph a side eye, but saved her energies for her response to me, “Jesus, Nat! That’s not what’s happening here!” but before she could continue, Chief Grady interrupted her, asking for me to come with him. He brought me over to the tkts booth which was now an isolated, quiet booth, with Russ sitting inside, “He needs to talk to you, Natalie. Just let him speak before you say anything, okay?” The chief said as we walked up.
“Okay,” I said tenuously, bracing myself for the true onslaught of blame I was about to receive.
“I’ll be out here if you need me,” he said as he walked over to a nearby bleacher seat.
Inside, I found Russ crumbled up in a ball on the floor right where the criminal was earlier cuffed to the pole. Russ was a mess of angles of legs and arms folded in strange zig zags to fit his large form in a small corner. I didn’t like seeing him there, nor did I like being in there, but I moved closer and sat down beside him. It took a while for him to say anything or even to acknowledge I was there. As per Chief Grady’s instructions, I didn’t say anything.
When Russ looked up at me I was shocked. He had been crying. It was obvious by the tightness of his face and the glossiness of his eyes. He wiped his face with his sleeves before speaking with a nasal voice, “Natalie, I am so sorry for everything, but most of all for how I’ve yelled at you. I am just past my limit with the insanity we have been exposed to in the last 24 hours. All I wanted to do was find a way to have a good time with you on this trip, you know, once the opportunity availed itself.”
I heard the words he said, but in my mind they didn’t make any kind of real sense. Was this all crumbling down to what Russ calculated as a horrible first date?
“I have liked you for so long. I joke around with my sister crushing on Rog, but I was in the same boat. I just never thought there was a chance. I mean, maybe, like if I was the last guy on Earth and stuff. And then you were with Murph or whatever, but we still got to talk and stuff. Then the world ends and I think at least I can keep my eye on you, keep you safe. The idiot leaves you alone and I think maybe it was meant to be this way. Making it through the craziness of the altered planet together and I think to myself, ‘I am so happy I am with her for all of this because I can protect her,’ but I can’t. The one minute we are separated you are caught with two animals who wanted to attack you,” he stared down at the ground between us and his eyes welled with tears again. I watched him struggle with his fury and pain again. I said nothing and waited.
“Then, as if it couldn’t get any worse, I hurt you!” he said while pointing at the blood on my shirt. “And, like a complete dick I continue to scream at you like some sort of maniac every time you remind me of everything I did wrong.”
Now I was flabbergasted — everything he did wrong? I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I didn’t mean to be insensitive to the situation, but I laughed.
Russ gave me a sidelong glance,“You’re laughing at me?”
“Can I say something now?” I asked, thinking no matter what Chief Grady said, I had to stop Russ from plowing down this path of incorrect thinking.
Russ nodded.
“Well, yeah I’m laughing at you. Practically everything you just said is ridiculous. First of all,” I raised my forefinger for effect, “the fact that you supposedly have liked me for ‘so long’ is utterly ridiculous. You never even talk to me! I didn’t even know you have been carpooling my brother all around Staten Island until today! Aren’t you supposed to talk to someone you like?” I glanced quickly at Russ, whose eyebrows raised.
“Aren’t you the expert crusher? How often did you talk to Murph before, what? Like, yesterday?” he said and tapped my nose.
“Right,” I said. “Okay. Touché there, but don’t distract me.” I plowed on through to my second point, raising my second finger up, “Secondly, the world did not end. I think you have stretched the truth for dramatic effect there. To a ridiculous level, I might add,” catching his eye that time, I saw him start to crack a smile, “And you say you wanted to protect me? Ridiculous! This world is nuts. My parents couldn’t even protect me, neither could Mrs. Krimble or Dr. Davies on this trip. You can look out for me, and I can look out for you, sure, but protect me in all cases? Sorry, Russ, that ain’t happening.” That one made him laugh. “But really, the most ridiculous thing you said is that you thought you hurt me.”
This time I took a deep breath, grabbed his two hands and looked directly into his eyes, “I want you to understand that nothing you have done on this trip — or ever, that I can think of — has hurt me. Russ, I thought you wanted to tell me how much you hated me just now for everything I had put you through. This is by far one of the most ridiculous conversations I have ever had!”
“But I shouldn’t have yelled at you,” he said quietly.
“Maybe not, but I shouldn’t have let those two guys in the store alone with me, so who's done the bigger bad here?” I shrugged, but before my shoulders could return to their normal position, Russ’s long arms were around me.
“I don’t know what I would have done if they hurt you, Natalie,” he whispered into my neck.
I wiggled my arms free and held him back because I had just remembered how I got out of that store. “If you didn’t pull me out of there they probably would have.” The tears felt hot and heavy in my eyes as the reality of what he had done for me finally hit me. “Russ, you did protect me. You saved me.”
“I think I would have tried to kill them,” he said.
“You saved me,” I whispered back, because with everything that had happened so quickly, it just hadn’t hit me until that moment.
“I’ll do it every time, if you’ll let me,” he said.
“Okay,” I whispered.
“Good,” he said before kissing me on my cheek. His lips were warm and soft and perfect. I wanted to kiss him back, but I was too lost in the moment, still covered in the ugly emotions of the day. I took his warm kiss and gathered it in my heart, letting it work a calming magic over me.
“Thank you,” I said because he had saved me again. This time he saved me from myself.
When Russ and I walked back up to the group hand in hand, the dynamic of how everyone looked at me had completely changed. I guess I didn’t look as fragile or damaged after talking to Murph, Rainbow and Chief Grady and fighting to bring Russ back into the fold smiling and relaxed. We were now together and, therefore, more balanced and easier to deal with. I think the group feared us each on our own in our own individual attempts at dealing with the insanity. Now we made sense.
“It’s getting late,” I said to Russ.
Rainbow overheard and agreed, “We were kinda hoping you guys were talking to the Chief guy about getting us out of here, too. Not for nothing, I think he completely forgot about getting us out of here with everything else going on.”
We hadn’t talked to the Chief about getting to the ferry, but it was the right idea. I stepped up to where Chief Grady was talking to some other officers.
“Excuse me, Chief,” I interrupted, no longer fearing this man after he bridged the gap between Russ and I. “Are those carriages coming to take us downtown soon?” I pointed to where the sun was and smiled, hoping he would remember his joke and laugh along with me.
“I can’t do anything for you until they return, Hon,” Chief Grady said, “but I promise when they do, you are the first group to go.”
“They left?” I asked.
“Darlin’, you just watched them leave!” Then he smiled, as if that were some kind of light hearted, humorous realization.
“It will probably be dark by the time they get back,” Russ said. “I’ve been watching them all day, it takes forever for them to return. Do you see that sun?” He pointed to the sky without taking his eyes off of Grady, “It’s not waiting for you!”
“Russ,” I said softly, “the chief knows. We are all in a difficult situation here. Why don’t we get something to eat and get all ready to go. That might take all the time we need.”
“Yeah. I guess,” he said, but then he turned to Grady and put a finger up in his face, “that doesn’t mean that I’m going to disappear. I’m going to be on you like white on rice, Chief. You promised us. You are not going to forget about us again!”
“Young man,” Chief Grady said, “that’s a deal.”
They shook hands and I felt confident we would be safely downtown by the time the sun set.
I was wrong.
Written in Natalie’s Notebook
Times Square 10/7, late afternoon
Waiting
Waiting
Waiting
While yesterday we seemed to be waiting for the sun so we could move safely toward our home, today we are waiting in spite of the sun’s descent. It’s the first time I think we are actually waiting for something — a ride to get us that much closer to home, but it’s another thing that’s just outside our realm of control.
It’s all so much slower than life used to be. I could have an Uber here in five minutes if I could just get my phone to work.
If they could just get their cars to work.
If this world were a little more familiar.
Written in Natalie’s Notebook
Times Square 10/7, little later (my “time stamp” is getting more and more pointless as I continue this book!)
I just got to thinking about what I wrote about how everything is much slower now. It’s like the whole world is in slow-motion. It can be annoying, sure, but why do people use slow motion? Why did I do frame by frame analyses of the WOLF NIGHTS teaser trailers?
Simple.
You miss a whole lot when things play too fast. A whole lot.
Maybe my life has been moving too fast. Maybe I’ve been missing a whole lot. I’m beginning to develop a list of stuff I was missing before the slow motion took over my life.
Written in Natalie’s Notebook
A List of Misses
The stars
The sun’s movement
A colorful friend right under my nose
The signs he wasn’t for me
The guy who I should have always seen
Leave a comment - Question of the Week
Thanks for continuing to read the GIRL, UNPLUGGED. I’m wondering how you’re feeling about Rubb right now. I have this sense that some readers will be “done” with him after the way he behaved throughout this chapter. Russ, like all of us, is flawed. He is also a young guy still learning how to deal with his feelings. Is that enough for you as a reader? Are you okay with Natalie forgiving him and understanding his outbursts, or do you think a better reaction would be cutting him off?
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